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Friday, July 1, 2011

COUNTERS TO THE KIMURA THAT EVERY GRACIE SHOULD KNOW.

Wow, I know. Someone, somewhere just got really pissed at me and is violently waiving their hand back and forth yelling "Oh no he didn't." Yes, I know some of you out there on the internets would like to stomp on your keyboard and write in all caps, but hey - it's the truth.

The kimura shoulderlock has a lot of aliases. It's also known as the chicken wing, double wristlock or reverse keylock. They are all basically the same move with similar mechanics and derive from Japanese JJ/Judo, where it's known as ude-garami. Even before the inception of JJJ, a form of the kimura was used in ancient grappling arts, such as Pehlwani, which many believe is the origin of what we do (BJJ, CACC, Sambo, JJJ, Judo etc.) Anyway, the Kimura is infamously called so because it was the lock that was used against Helio Gracie by judoka, Masahiko Kimura.

Now, on to some more shoulderlock history - we move down the road several years and find Gracie killer, Kazushi Sakuraba beating Royler with the same lock that took down his father. It constituted the first loss by a Gracie in professional fighting in several decades. Sakuraba followed up again a few years later using the kimura against Renzo in Pride FC with disastrous results. No one is doubting the toughness of the Gracie family. In all three fights, no one in the family would concede to tapping and the referee or official had to stop each of the fights. Regardless, the ude-garami and Japanese fighters were the Gracie's kryptonite.

Now that I've given you grapplers some submission history, it's time for some video. How the hell do I properly counter the kimura? Well the guys at VT Gym once again break it down for us with another great instructional. Next time someone tries to get you in a kimura, it will no longer be your kryptonite.